1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data input device and data input method for inputting numeric data by voice.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable terminals (handy terminals) are becoming more commonly used for services, such as reading gas and electricity meters, inventory of products, and the like. The use of portable terminals allows information obtained on site to be input and processed in real time, thus increasing the efficiency and speed of such services. The size of portable terminals is being reduced because of the attention focused on the portability thereof, and data is generally input using soft keyboards or pens. In contrast, nowadays, speech recognition systems are attracting attention as alternative means for data input. Speech recognition is useful for situations where both hands of a user are occupied, and portable terminals with a speech recognition function have already been on the market.
In speech recognition, receivable words and recognition grammar are usually defined in advance. For example, in order to recognize three-digit numbers, procedures, such as registering each number from 0 to 999 as a word, preparing recognition grammar for receiving numbers from 0 to 9 for each digit, or the like, can be used. The number of receivable words and the complexity of the recognition grammar affect recognition performance. In other words, a reduction in the number of receivable words allows high accuracy of recognition results. With such a background, inventions have been made that are characterized in that the number of receivable words or recognition grammar can be reduced by setting words to be received (in this case, scaled numbers or the like) in advance by users.
For example, if a price range of products is from 100 yen to 1,000 yen and their prices are set in increments of 100 yen, the number of values to be received is 10, such as 100, 200, 300, etc. When known speech recognition grammar for receiving integers from 0 to 1,000 is used, even if only ten words are needed to be recognized, the recognition grammar can receive a thousand words. Thus, the possibility of misrecognition is increased. However, according to the above inventions (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-5484), the minimum value, the maximum value, the step width, and the like of a price range set by a user allow generation of recognition grammar by which the number of receivable words is reduced, thus suppressing a reduction in the recognition rate.
However, in such inventions, users need to set the minimum value, the maximum value, the step width, and the like for all items, such as a price and an amount, in advance.